Jimmy Redman

Sure is.

Holy shit. Meiko vs Becky. Meiko vs Sasha. Meiko vs Ronda. MEIKO VS SHAYNA. Fuck now I want a Meiko world tour in WWE.

It's super going to be a bit weird to see one of my favourite ever matches basically cosplayed by the same people right in front of me live and in person.

It legitimately blows my mind that Miz and Maryse had those amazing interactions in 2009-10, presumably just when they were getting together and had wicked chemistry...and then WWE put her with Ted Jr. instead and they looked like they had never met. Imagine how good Miz's world title reign could have been with Maryse in tow.

They just announce like every PPV match on social media with no build because hey, but they sure find time to give R-Truth teaming with Carmella in the MMC the long term build. I love wrestling.

Women amirite. To be honest this museum thing is really starting to upset me though.

I don't think the Melbourne crowd will be smarky. Not a crowd of 80k. My experience of WWE house shows in the past is that they're not particularly smarky. More a typical casual WWE audience. I get the use of Hunter and Taker in that sense, to draw in those casual WWE fans who go to house shows because they're there and remember the big stars from years before way more than for current day stars.

I think they knew I was going and gave me a break by NOT having Shane fucking McMahon wrestling on it.

Is there such a thing as a ****+ pillow fight? You fuckin' bet there is! This thing has murder, mayhem, monkeys and some very old school heeling. It is a masterpiece, and to be honest it's probably my masterpiece too. http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-the-1-4-lingerie-pillow-fight/

Back to talk some more about my favourite tag team - Laycool - I take you through the story of their relationship and ultimately their break up, and explain why it was the Breaking Bad of WWE angles. http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-the-tragic-tale-of-laycool/

On another note, it's early days but for any Aussies on this board who are going to the show, we're looking to organise a bit of a meet up before the show, so if you want in on that action please get in touch with me.

Oh damn. I could have done with a Cena Indy Workrate match live. The SD title match at Survivor Series being some combo of AJ/Joe and Bryan/Miz is a hell of a thing.

Loved this match. One thing I want to say specifically is that my reading of the elbow kickout was that Kairi had her knee worked over and thus couldn't use her legs to leap as high as she normally does and thus it wasn't her best elbow drop. So I was fine with it.

I haven't been into a men's match in WWE like that in a long ass time. Incredible.

To your point, and I don't necessarily disagree entirely but like... I would give a damn about the hypocrisy angle if the people criticising Dave were like, Vince or Hunter or Kevin Dunn or Stephanie - people with power in WWE who have an actual hand in decision making when it comes to hiring and pushing and presentation of women and making deals with woman hating regimes. Not the women wrestlers themselves, who are far more victims of WWE's historic treatment of women than they are complicit in it. And whose job security is always murky at best. Like, I know Vince Russo piled onto Dave today, for example, and he can get in the absolute trash because he is one of the most egregious exploiters of women in wrestling history. He has no legs to stand on. Neither do the McMahons. It's one of the key facets of marginalisation that society always holds the marginalised themselves responsible for speaking out and raising issues and creating change, when they're the ones with the least amount of power in the situation. It's not the job of the women wrestlers to fix misogyny in the company or publicly square their own feminism with Saudi deals they have no control over. I don't blame workers for the sins of a corporation.

They both matter. And they should both be addressed and called out. It doesn't have to be an either/or thing or a value judgment. The problem with whataboutism is that it diminishes experiences. Just because she works for a company that does business in KSA doesn't mean she can't be shamed and offended by a sexist comment. When you start playing "you have no leg to stand on because your boss has done far worse" the actual message gets lost. That's why I chose to focus on the message, and not the hysteria. I think the difference is that I would hope that everyone in this thread understands that how women are treated in Saudi Arabia is wrong. Not everyone seems to understand that speaking about women this way is wrong.

OK. To be honest, I don't give much of a shit about Dave Meltzer. I'm not going to come in here and argue about the finer points of his personality or his Twitter pile on. Who I do care about are the rest of you, the men in this thread, the men in my wider circle of a wrestling community, the men on wrestling Twitter (nightmare that it is to be sure). Particularly any of the men who have said or posted or even thought today that this isn't a big deal. That don't understand the fuss. That, in context, what he said was fine. That it has been blown out of proportion by SJWs or the outrage machine. That since he wasn't actually fat shaming her it was OK. That you agree with what he was saying. It's you guys that worry me. That scare me. Because I'm pretty sure you mean well but I'm also pretty sure you don't fully understand the underlying problem. Let's take a look at his actual comments, in context: My emphasis. Because clearly the discussion was supposed to be about the Iconics as an act and why they are treading water on Smackdown. Which, sure, cool. But there is a GIGANTIC leap from the first parts of Dave's comment to the last. Promos, sure. Matches, sure, makes sense. But what on EARTH does the size of Peyton Royce's breasts have to do with the effectiveness (or not) of the Iconics as wrestlers? Once more for the people in the back, what on EARTH does the size of Peyton Royce's breasts have to do with the effectiveness of the Iconics as wrestlers? The answer is absolutely nothing. But we are in a society so utterly conditioned to see women's bodies as commodities and fair game that some people don't see the problem with equating one with the other. It IS a problem. Because her breasts have absolutely nothing to do with it and yet the most respected journalist we have in our world feels the need to bring them up as if they have any relevance to a discussion on wrestling. I'm sure people feel like the Iconics have underwhelmed since moving to Smackdown (not relevant to the point but wow, an NXT act that gets lost once it gets called up! That never happens! Must be a mysterious, appearance-related explanation as to why that is!) and there could be any number of reasons why. Please, discuss them. Once more for the road, the size and shape of Peyton's breasts is not remotely one of them. Implying that they are by putting them in the same conversation as having bad promos or bad matches is a problem. If you didn't see or believe that before, please see it now. Even if, EVEN IF it somehow were relevant, we still have the following exchange: EVEN IF they were remotely trying to make a point about the size of Peyton's breasts having anything to do with wrestling, we still get the two of them straight up having a conversation about how he thinks she was more attractive before than she is now. Even if he was trying to speak in code about breast implants, that's what they said, those are the words they used. He thought she was more attractive before. So once more, back to the chorus fellas, what on EARTH does how attractive you find Peyton Royce have to do with the Iconics as wrestlers? This isn't a dude on Twitter talking about his #wcw, this is Dave and Bryan on their radio show discussing wrestling and introducing... THAT into the conversation. Oh you don't like her boob job? You think she was hotter before? Congratulations! Nobody fucking asked you. Least of all Peyton Royce. That's not wrestling discussion, it's not news, it's not analysis. It's objectifying. Leave women's bodies alone. Leave women's breasts alone. None of us are Peyton. None of us know the reasons why she decided to change her appearance in this way (assuming she did). But she is perfectly entitled to do what the fuck she wants with her body and look the way she wants. They're her breasts. This goes for Peyton, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair, anyone else. They're her breasts and she can do what she wants with them. What's fucking weird is a bunch of dudes feeling so entitled to scrutinise her breasts and judge her for it. Women feel an overwhelming pressure to look attractive to men - pressure from outside, inside, conscious, subconscious. And no matter what they do to their bodies to look as good as they can, to feel comfortable with their appearance (especially women in the spotlight), there is always a man at the end going "Nah, you look worse now, you were hotter before." Congratulations. Nobody fucking asked you. Get in the bin. There is a point to be made about the pressure that women in the spotlight feel about their appearance in general, and a point to be made particularly about WWE and what they want women to look like, even today. Any overt or even perceived pressure from WWE to the women to enlarge their breasts is a serious issue. But the way to make that point is NOT to shame the women that do enlarge their breasts. They are not remotely the problem here. They are entitled to do what they want with their own bodies, for whatever reasons, and don't owe their bodies to anyone for doing so. Even if they're a wrestler. Even if they're in the spotlight. Leave women's bodies alone. So I guess, please understand that this isn't much ado about nothing. It isn't about people mistaking benign comments for fat shaming. These aren't benign comments. He may not have meant them to be rude, or malicious, or objectifying, but he doesn't have to. SO MUCH of the misogyny and sexism in our society isn't malicious. It is simply ingrained. These comments and interactions that we can excuse as "benign" are the building blocks that create an environment that leads to more serious issues - maliciousness, harassment, assault, domestic violence. We have to call it out at every level. We have to see it. Acknowledge it. And ultimately, dismantle it. One of the first steps can be, when you're having a discussion about why a wrestling act isn't working, leave their fucking breasts out of it. Start with that. I'm terrified saying all this. Whenever sexism or gender issues come up in wrestling I become once again hyper aware that I am the only woman in a large group of men (or one of the only ones). It gives me a weird sense of... responsibility to use my voice as a woman and contribute to the discussion. But in turn I have a weird sense of expectation that I somehow have to represent the female gender for all of you guys, to speak for all women and come up with the answers. I'm not speaking for anyone else, and I don't have the answers. Today's nonsense isn't a black and white issue and I'm not saying Dave is a piece of shit and everyone trashing him is right and that's all there is. I said, I have no interest in discussing Dave's personality quirks or the Twitter meltdown that ensued. I only want to talk about his actual comments, and why they matter. Anyone could have said it and the point remains the same. I just hope anyone who isn't fully on board with the idea of his comments being problematic can try to take a step back and understand where women are coming from at times like this.

I won't have time to elaborate until later today, but I don't really like the idea of Dave Meltzer as a bastion of feminism in the business, or the idea that this was an isolated slip up that we can give him the benefit of the doubt for. In some ways that thinking is indicative of a much wider problem.

This week is my love letter to Victoria, the goofy, sumo suit wearing heel of my dreams, and to a match that legitimately changed my life as a fan. If you were ever wondering why I put Victoria vs. Cherry on all my Best Matches Ever lists... http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-the-woman-of-my-dreams/

This isnt aimed at you specifically but it's fascinating the way we talk about wrestlers. The way we talk about grown men in general. Orton exhibited asshole behaviour well into his late 20s and early 30s. I wonder how old you can get before the excuse of being young and stupid no longer applies. I'm 28 and I feel like if I did some trash shit like anything Orton did at that age I wouldn't be able to get away with "oh but she's just young and stupid." I'm a grown ass person. So was he. I should state that I agree that people deserve a chance to change and Orton seems to have mellowed out in the last couple years. Good for him, he's finally exhibiting like bare minimum decent behaviour now that he's 38 YEARS OLD. It doesn't really change or excuse his shitty behaviour. It doesn't mean he's not an asshole. And it has nothing to do with the fact that people should be held accountable for sexually harassing people in the workplace.

Orton was married with children before, albeit to a different person, when he did a lot of his bullshit. It's not a cure all.

Being a bit topical with the ol' Mae Young Classic taping today, here's the story of how I became a big fat Kaitlyn fan in a confusing three day whirlwind (just ask Matt D). http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-the-blonde-wig-saga-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-kaitlyn

I'm saying it again here because it feels good to repeat over and over. Alicia Fox just main evented Monday Night Raw in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eighteen. Praise be. And at least she got to enjoy the biggest showcase of her career before horrifically succumbing to her death via grievous bodily judo throws.

I am RIDICULOUSLY hyped for it.

After last week's craziness we're getting back to normal... which means me comparing Michelle McCool to Stan Hansen. Oh yes. http://placetobenation.com/staceys-divas-deep-dive-michelle-the-terminator-mccool/